『Abstract
Global data suggest that erosion rates variously scale with steepness
or climate forcing (precipitation or glacial excavation), but
the relative influence of these factors has proven difficult to
assess without comparisons from a single location. A new suite
of detrital 10Be data from the Three Rivers Region,
SE Tibet is used to examine the relative importance of rainfall
and relief in predicting patterns of erosion rates across a region
with a strong gradient in exhumation. The data reveal millennial
erosion rates vary by two orders of magnitude, from 0.01 to 8
mm/yr across a regional gradient in exhumation rates inferred
from previous thermochronology and cosmogenic nuclide data to
the west and east of the study region. The new millennial erosion
rates mirror the pattern of decreasing exhumation rates from west
to east across the region, with the highest rates in the lower
Salween River drainage and the lowest rates in the Yangtze River
drainage. Erosion rates in the Mekong and Salween River drainages
are correlated with mean local relief whereas in the Yangtze River
drainage they are correlated most strongly with mean annual rainfall.
The tectonic setting of this region, with a strong west to east
gradient in exhumation rates which we infer to mirror a gradient
in rock uplift, seems to exert a stronger control on erosion rate
patterns than rainfall or relief.
Keywords: Three Rivers Region; basin wide erosion rates; tectonic
geomorphology; China; Eastern Tibet』
1. Introduction
1.1. Tectonic setting and exhumation in the TRR
2. Methods
2.1. Erosion rates from 10Be
2.2. Potential indicators of erosion
2.2.1. Steepness - predicting erosion rate patterns using mean
local relief
2.2.2. Climate - predicting erosion rates from mean annual rainfall
3. Results
3.1. Erosion rates from Be-10
3.2. Patterns of local relief and mean annual precipitation
4. Discussion
4.1. Potential influence of lithology and differential river
incision on measured erosion rates
4.2. Relief and rainfall as indicators of erosion rates
4.3. Geomorphic mechanisms potentially controlling TRR erosion
rates
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Appendix A. Supplementary data
References